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The Wonderful Archeology Of 'Dark Souls' Lore

Dark Souls doesn’t tell a story; it asks you to dig its story from the ruins and learn it on your own.

“The truth I shall share without sentiment.After the advent of fire, the ancient lords found the three souls.But your progenitor found a fourth, unique soul.The Dark Soul.Your ancestor claimed the Dark Soul and waited for Fire to subside.And soon, the flames did fade, and only Dark remained.Thus began the age of men, the Age of Dark.”

~ Darlkstalker Kaathe, from Dark Souls

“Thou will understand, one day.”

~ Hawkeye Gough, from Artorias of the Abyss

More Human than Human

Perhaps the most incredible thing about Dark Souls is its lore—lore that I am still learning, questioning, and discovering even now. Take the quoted passage above. The serpent Kaathe tells you that it was not until “your progenitor” found the Dark Soul, and then waited for the Age of Fire to end, that the age of men began. The age of Dark.

If you’ve played Dark Souls through and experienced the Dark Lord ending, you’ll realize that you just played not as the game’s hero—the Chosen Undead—but as the Dark Lord in the making. The game’s villain, in other words. If you’ve played the Artorias of the Abyss DLC and spent time killing some of the NPCs in Oolacile, you will have heard them dismiss you as “human.”

For instance, if you attack Lord’s Blade Ciaran, one of the Knights of Gwyn, she will say: “Hmph, you humans…always taking what you please. Then, I shall do the same.”

And when you attack the giant Hawkeye Gough, he exclaims: “Ahh, so this is true human nature. Artorias is in your debt, but thou leavest me little choice…May you perish, for the good of all!”

YouTube user HazeIrahFirefly has an interesting take on all of this:

If you don’t have time for the video, it basically boils down to this: Manus was once human (as his soul description states) but was corrupted. It’s likely that he was the pygmy, your “progenitor” who discovered the unique fourth soul, or Dark Soul, which gave rise to the Abyss. It’s possible that Kaathe acts as a Satan figure, tempting Manus and ultimately corrupting him.

This then gives rise to the age of men, the Age of Dark. The theory is that humanity is born out of the abyss itself, that it is intended to spread and pave the way for the eventual rise of the Dark Lord. Human beings are born out of the shapeless Humanity itself, and are inherently destructive and evil.

Here’s more of Kaathe’s dialogue:

“Lord Gwyn trembled at the Dark.Clinging to his Age of Fire, and in dire fear of humans,and the Dark Lord who would one day be born amongst them,Lord Gwyn resisted the course of nature.By sacrificing himself to link the fire, and commanding his children to shepherd the humans,Gwyn has blurred your past, to prevent the birth of the Dark Lord.”

I’m not sure that humans are born out of the Abyss, but I think the Dark has corrupted Humanity and humankind, making the age of men and the Age of Dark synonymous. If all humans have become tainted, and if one will someday become the Dark Lord, no wonder Gwyn fears them.

Gwyn and his followers are directed at two tasks now that the first task of defeating the dragons has ended and the Abyss has begun to spread: first, preserving the Age of Fire and holding back the Abyss—something the Knight Artorias fails at, and that even the flooding of New Londo and destruction of Oolacile would not bring about—and shepherding the humans, which I take to mean protecting and watching over them to seek out the Dark Lord. These tasks also entail the preservation of the bonfires.

Here’s the opening cinematic:

I wonder if the Age of Ancients is what the primordial serpents are attempting to regain. An end to Disparity, the duality of heat and cold and life and death and dark and light that was brought about by the Age of Fire. In other words, is the Age of Dark really different from the Age of Ancients? Is Kaathe attempting to bring about Unity through Dark and put an end to the Disparity of Fire which he refers to as resisting “the course of nature.”

Here’s EpicNameBro on the Artorias expansion:

It’s all brilliant stuff as usual, though his question at the end is what resonates with me. How can anyone say this game doesn’t have a great story?

“Thou will understand, one day.”

It’s rhetorical, but I think I know why some may miss out on the depth and power of Dark Souls lore.

Discovering the story and history and mythology of this game is sort of like an archaeological dig. You dig up the buried ruins of Lordran, Oolacile, and the figures who give life and meaning to these places. But you dig them up in little, obscured pieces. You discover the world and its past through the opening cinematic, through brief snatches of dialogue with NPCs (some of whom you may never encounter on your first playthrough) and in item and spell descriptions.

It’s inscrutable and wonderful and perhaps it inspires curiosity and a sort of exploration of story that no other game really possesses. Like the rest of the game’s secrets, you will be hard-pressed to understand or even ask the right questions about the game’s lore if you don’t occasionally delve into these YouTube musings or hop aboard a forum or wiki. What other game requires this much collaboration in order to simply parse out its story? None that I can think of.

This means that revelations are constant, and that when DLC like Artorias comes out, new revelations help reveal clues that may temper, enforce, or change entirely our previous theories.

Of course, this also means that many players will never be privy to the game’s deeper story, that they will struggle through the combat and the brutal levels and reach the end pick an ending and think to themselves: “What the hell just happened?”

And I think this is why the directors of Dark Souls 2 have mentioned that they want the next game to be more “straightforward.”

I think there must be a sense that all this great storytelling is simply going over everyone’s head, and that it would be good to convey more of it within the game itself, to give players a somewhat clearer picture of what the hell is going on. I’m of two minds on this. I think it’s a tricky balance, and I think the formula now is so close to perfect that any straying from said formula could result in disaster.

That being said, I do think there’s room for more of the story to come through for players without breaking that sense of mystery and inscrutability that the game’s storytelling creates, but I think it would be very easy to tip the scales too far. This could be a far more damaging thing than adding an Easy Mode to the next game.

As much as I love the difficulty in Dark Souls it’s that sense of exploring a real fantastical world rich with things long forgotten that makes Dark Souls such a brilliant piece of art. Unlike most fantasy in any medium, in Dark Souls the world is fed to us with little hints. The world building is deep and profound but it’s never obvious, and I love it all the more for that, especially as someone who has been spoonfed far too many high fantasy tropes over the years.

I hope that we do learn more about all of this, of course, and that more of our questions are answered (and new ones raised) in Dark Souls 2. But I hope we’re made to work for it, to look closely and carefully at every clue, just like we have to work to succeed at combat.

I think Gough’s comments about someday understanding should be taken as a promise to gamers that someday we will understand what all this means. Perhaps it was a hint at the next game, a hint that we will learn more about the Dark Soul and about its corruption of Humanity and Manus and the role of the serpents in bringing about the Age of Dark.

I’m deeply excited about that prospect, but like everyone else, I’m also deeply worried. My optimistic side is winning out at the moment, however, because From Software has already created two of the greatest video games of all time in Demon’s and Dark Souls, and I have no reason to believe they’ll destroy such a winning formula, even if they do tinker with it some.

As a final note, the new Dark Souls 2 trailer shows a woman handing over what looks to be a hawk feather. The only place in the game where I’ve seen a similar feather is in the Feather Arrows, described as:

Red feather arrows of the Lord’s hunters. Their long rage makes them effective for sniping.

Not sure if that’s important, but there it is.

Also, if we are looking out at Anor Londo, then I think that points to a definite prequel since the sunlight over Anor Londo in Dark Souls is an illusion. It’s also possible that the bridge that looks so much like the bridge leading to the Painted World leads to what the Painted World used to be prior to its becoming a prison.

Of course, there are many lands beyond Lordran, from Balder to Catarina, so hopefully if this is a prequel we’re given more of a glimpse of these civilizations as well.

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The more I think about it, the more I believe it needs to be a prequel.

You are given optional endings in Dark Souls, so I don’t see how they could continue upon that without picking an ending to continue. A large majority of the players probably played through to both endings, so I doubt anyone has any feelings as to how it should or shouldn’t end. However, the uncertain of furture of the world, after dark souls, isn’t as interesting as Humans journey to corruption or story leading up to dark souls. There is far too many interesting undiscovered history aspect of dark souls, So I hope it is a prequel to expand upon it.

As far as my hopes for a more “straightforward” sequel, I hope they don’t interrupt gameplay to eject you with story. I don’t want to have story events that require certain npcs to babble story to you. The npcs of soul games always felt like they were in the games themselves trying to figure out their own issues, instead of being programmed to focus on you and progress the story.

I always enjoyed how you can kill anyone in dark souls ( I have never tried to kill both Frampt and Kaathe, no clue what happens then. Or killing the Maiden in Demon souls, I know you can, but I have no idea how you get to the ending of either game without one of them) Yurt the Silent Chef was literally just a modern day serial killer, but in the world of demon souls. He did nothing for the story of demon souls, just added to the atmosphere.

I think what I am trying to get at is, You were never restricted or interrupted in gameplay because of story. I oddly thought of Leah from Diablo 3 when I saw the female in the Dark Souls 2 trailer. I prefer my npcs to be like Sunbro or Seigmeyer as opposed to Leah. I don’t know how to describe that difference too well, but I think if you played both, then you know what I mean

I generally agree with you on this. I love how the story is told in-game as well. No real cut-scenes, no moments of lost agency. Everything is right there, all the NPCs are simply inhabitants of the same world. I also hope there’s not any more dialogue and that it maintains its somber, archaic style.

it doesn’t matter which story you choose because if you take lord gwyn’s place you too will eventually fall and the age of dark will begin, and if you don’t link the fire then the age of dark begins immediately. or if not right away something along those lines.

I think you failed Dark Souls 101. The dark ending isn’t the bad ending. Everything is opposite of what you normally assume in fantasy, light=good and dark=bad, etc. The age of fire is the age in which the gods had dominion over man. The age of man is when men end that age of so called fire or light.

I wouldn’t call it “Dark Souls 101″ as a lot of the story is up for interpretation, at least in my opinion. Darkstalker Kaathe, the primordial serpent, and The Dark Wraiths seek to preserve Humanity, and thus collect it in order to prevent the feeding of Bonfires. They seek to usher in the Age of Darkness, However, as far as their purpose for doing, we don’t known. Frampt wants the player to relight the flame to extend the current Age of Fire. It is not clear if the status quo of the Age of Fire is truly better than Kaathe’s alternative since the Age of Dark is a complete unknown. I would debate that neither were designed to be good or bad.

All that being said, I didn’t fully understand any of this until my third play through and being involved on the wikis and forums.

Phaedrus – Simply being the biggest jerk in a comment thread doesn’t make you right.

First off, no, there is no indication that “everything is opposite” from normal fantasy. It’s true that there is no clear-cut good vs. evil at play, but I think that the Abyss is an obviously terrible place and any who succumb to it are given a fate worse than death. See, for example, Artorias whom you save by destroying him. He was overcome by the Abyss and by, one assumes, Manus who one imagines found the Dark Soul in the first place, etc. and who sparked the dawn of humanity and the search for the Dark Lord. There is no indication whatsoever that he is somehow “good” in any way, or that the coming of the Age of Dark is a blessing. True again, there is little indication that the Age of Fire is a wonderful time, but it still strikes me as a time preferable to the Age of Dark. For instance, it is made clear that this was a time of Disparity, but even so it was a time when there were choices to be made. Not all was overwhelmed by darkness. I get the feeling that the age of man will be one of even deeper misery.

Of course, my primary objection to your snide little comment is that you have curse of blind certainty in yourself. I’m sorry, but there’s no definitive lore here. There’s no One True Church of Dark Souls even if you’d like to think you have it all figured out. I realize that you’ve made it your duty to show up on and say something Very Negative in as many threads as possible, but the arrogance in your comment is just sad. Nobody has this figured out perfectly yet. It’s conjecture, and just because you disagree with me doesn’t mean I failed Dark Souls 101.

All throughout Dark Souls lore, especially the witch sisters, the flame is shown to corrupt. The gods are manipulating the chosen the entire time with Sen’s Fortress being a sort of test to get the best “chosen” undead to try and reignite the flame to continue the age of fire, aka the age of the gods.